King's Lynn 0 Burscough 0
20th December 2008
RARELY, if ever, are goalless draws classics but it has to be said that this was a shocker.
Before Saturday, Lynn had scored in every home league game at The Walks, while Burscough had netted in every game on their travels.
It had all the makings of a classic pre-match, but unfortunately both sets of players forgot to read the script and delivered a horror show instead.
Many Lynn fans made the right decision to stay away from The Walks and many more performances like this will see gates continue to plummet.
Linnets boss Keith Webb, whose side were quite rightly booed off the pitch at half-time and full-time, said: "I don't think their goalkeeper has had a save to make.
"We didn't look willing to break Burscough down and some of the players weren't prepared to try and grasp the game.
"Had we played a half-decent team we could have been well and truly beaten out of sight.
"I thought Bradley Thomas and Luke Graham did well, but other than that the players let themselves down."
Even Burscough boss Andy Mutch tried two different vantage points, hoping the action would look better - but it didn't.
Mutch was up and down from the stands during the 90 minutes but there was no improvement on the pitch, although to be fair his Burscough outfit were a lot brighter than their hosts.
Lynn, who have now drawn more than half of their league games this campaign, failed to muster more than two weak opportunities on target, while Burscough at least created a handful of half-chances.
Despite some glowing praise from his manager in recent weeks, big summer-signing Julian Joachim was left to warm the bench again.
Ben Sedgemore provided Lynn's only shot in anger in the first half, but his drive was well dealt with by Burscough keeper Steve Dickinson.
Burscough, though, were denied by the woodwork and the fingertips of Scott Howie.
Howie was at full stretch to his left to turn a Jordian Stepien shot around his post for a corner on the half-hour mark.
But perhaps the Lancastrians' best chance of the afternoon came a few minutes later when Maty Parry struck Howie's right post with a cheeky back-heel after Ryan Wade climbed above Ben Chapman.
The arrival of Joe Francis and Joachim early in the second period offered some brief hope to the brave 860 spectators.
But there was no improvement in the attacking play from either side and neither goalkeeper had a serious save to make, although Dickinson did gratefully clutch onto a Greg Crane free-kick.
Long-term absentee Mark Peters watched Lynn's dire display from the stands, but probably gave more effort in his failed late fitness test than some of his playing colleagues did during their 90 minutes out on the pitch.
Lynn: Howie, Graham, Chapman, Thomas, Crane, Sedgemore (Francis 57), Turner (Joachim 56), Mitchell, J. Defty, Frew , Fisk (C. Defty 73). Subs (not used): Weaver, Murray.
Booking: J. Defty.
Burscough: S. Dickinson, J. Goulding, S. Clancy, B. Moogan, G.Brannan (M. Grogan 64), T. Evans, M. Parry, E. Stanford (J. Wilson 76), J. Stepien (C. Davies 82), R. Wade, P. Heler. Subs (not used): D. Roberts, A. Grundy.
Bookings: J. Goulding, M. Parry, P. Heler.
Referee: M. Chester (Lincs).
Attendance: 860.
MoM: The stay-away fans who missed the game.
Stats, Lynn first: shots on target 2, 3; off target 2, 7; corners 6, 8; offside 6, 4; free-kicks 18, 12.